Back in 2003, writer-director Len Wiseman (Die Hard 4.0, Total Recall (2012)) brought to the big screen a new take on some classic movie monsters in the form of Underworld, a dark noir tale of vampires fighting a war against the werewolves – “Lycans” as they are referred to throughout the movie. This movie was, at heart, a new-age horror movie looking to breathe life into some of these classic, but underutilized characters.

Beckinsale once again don's the skintight suit of Death Dealer Selene

Fast forward to 2012 and we now have had both a sequel and prequel to the original movie. Now we have Underworld: Awakening added to the lineup. This movie sees Wiseman hand over the director’s reins to a Swedish duo, Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, both of whom have previously worked on many Swedish TV shows as a directing duo.

While on the acting front Kate Beckinsale (The Aviator, Van Helsing, Whiteout) returns as Selene; new additions to the cast include: Michael Ealy (The Good Wife, Californication), Charles Dance (Alien 3, Game of Thrones, Going Postal), India Eisley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager), Stephen Rea (V for Vendetta, Citizen X), and Theo James (The Inbetweeners Movie, Bedlam.)

Underworld: Awakening begins shortly after where the second left off. Humans have found out that two new “human-like” species exist and have been living amongst them for hundreds of years. Humans begin to fear these new species and see them as a disease that is to be purged from their world with ultraviolence and silver ammunition. They also begin to perform tests on all humans to see who is “infected” in their world. While trying to escape this purge, Selene (a vampire) and Michael (a hybrid of both Lycan and vampire), find themselves ambushed by a group of humans and are subsequently captured, cryogenically frozen, and experimented on to find a cure for this disease.

India Eisley is one of the better features of this movie

Fast-forward twelve years, Selene is broken out of the facility where she is being held by a fellow prisoner known as Subject 2, aka Eve (Eisley) and are now on the run from the doctor (Rea) who has been holding them captive and using their blood to aid his company in locating a cure.

As the story progresses, we find out that Eve is the child of both Selene and Michael and is, herself, a hybrid of both Lycan and Vampire. This makes her a valuable target for the humans as they search for the cure but also for the Lycans as those who remain after the purge seek to use her as a means to overcome their weakness to silver.

In comparison to some other films – this is not the greatest movie ever committed to celluloid; but it is, by far, not the worst. This movie franchise has become very much how the Resident Evil series has gone .. a little too bogged down with its own lore and most of the time it feels overly complicated for what the movie once was, a simple action movie of monster vs. monster. The movie has a recap of the last two films at the beginning as a means to aide you in understanding what is about to unfold, and while useful, it does very little to help explain why things are happening.

There are points within the movie that lack any form of explanation and, as such, leave the audience confused if they try to follow the so-called plot. Yet what the movie lacks in plot it makes up for in action and violence. Many of the action sequences and obligatory slow motion sequences are very well choreographed and work very well within the dark settings of the movie. There are many of these sequences throughout the movie in order to make sure that the audience has not thought too much or attempted to figure out some of the plotholes / issues which are left unexplained.

My advice to anyone that walks into see this movie would be not to set any expectations, therefore you will not leave disappointed or let down by this movie. This is the kind of movie that you would be able to put on after a long stressful day and just sit back without the need to think about what is happening. You are only required to sit back and watch everything unfold and, maybe every once in a while, admire how these people move in what must be some of the most restrictive costumes ever.